Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Blades waive selection at import draft

- KEVIN MITCHELL kemitchell@postmedia.com twitter.com/ kmitchsp

The Saskatoon Blades will take a bench seat for today’s Canadian Hockey League import draft.

The draft itself is a “frustratin­g ” process, says general manager Colin Priestner — more on that later — but in this case, Saskatoon has both European slots filled. So they’ll forfeit their No. 15 overall selection. Defencemen Libor Hajek and Mark Rubinchik figure in the team’s plans for 2017-18, and they’d have to let one of those players go if they participat­e today.

Saskatoon’s not allowed to trade that pick, Priestner notes, so it will simply disappear.

“There’s lots of flaws within the draft that the CHL needs to figure out, but right now, we have to respect the rule that there’s no way to trade your Euro pick,” Priestner says.

“We’re not going to trade one player to get another, unknown player. We like what Mark and Libor are about. They’re a big part of our team.”

Priestner says it’s a difficult draft to prepare for. Last year, he notes as an example, Kootenay selected Russian Klim Kostin with the first overall pick, but he opted to play for Moscow Dynamo.

“It really is an odd draft,” Priestner says.

“It’s the only draft in the world where you don’t know what the players are. Every team’s got a different list of players from the agents; it’s agent-driven. Some teams are told this player’s under contract in Europe and will not be coming over, and the same player gets drafted five picks later to a big-market team, and suddenly, they don’t have a (European) contract.

“You get told no a lot. You’re calling agents, and you’re getting told no hundreds of times, then you’re seeing these players show up in Ontario or Quebec. It’s frustratin­g, because there’s no defined list of who’s opting in. The obvious solution to that is an opt-in draft. But the problem with that is, if a player opts in for the CHL draft and someone takes him in a small town in Quebec he doesn’t want to go to, he’ll just stay in Europe. It’s a frustratin­g situation for all our managers to go through, because you really don’t know who’s available.”

Priestner says draft issues remain a talking point in the CHL board rooms. An accurate database, he says, “would be a great start” — something as simple as listing players who have opted into the draft, making a declaratio­n that they’re not hindered by European contracts.

Saskatoon’s current philosophy is to select the best available player who wants to be here and is committed to coming over.

“There’s no perfect way to do it and I don’t have all the answers,” Priestner says. “But I’m sure glad I didn’t have to spend 500 hours on the phones and emails (this year) getting told no by everyone, until you finally find a player you’re happy with. And I’m really happy we have two good defencemen who are a big part of our team, and they love being here.”

Hajek, selected second overall in the 2015 import draft, was Tampa Bay’s second-round NHL pick in 2016. He’ll play his third season with the Blades if he doesn’t stick with Tampa Bay this fall.

Saskatoon picked Rubinchik with the seventh overall selection in last year’s import draft. He was ranked 140th among North American skaters heading into last week’s NHL entry draft, but didn’t get selected.

“It’s not the ideal situation to have a higher pick and not be able to use it, but we feel Libor Hajek’s going to be one of the top defencemen in the league next year as a 19-year-old, and he’s a big part of our d-core,” Priestner said. “And we felt Mark Rubinchik had a real strong second half. He had a disappoint­ing weekend, not getting drafted, but I think he’s real motivated from that.”

 ?? GORD WALDNER ?? Defenceman Libor Hajek, who figures in the Saskatoon Blades’ future, would have to be let go for the team to participat­e in Wednesday’s Canadian Hockey League import draft.
GORD WALDNER Defenceman Libor Hajek, who figures in the Saskatoon Blades’ future, would have to be let go for the team to participat­e in Wednesday’s Canadian Hockey League import draft.

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